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* Lots of manual stuff. Reference pages for most Nix commands.

Browse source 
* nix-pull now requires the full url to the manifest, i.e.,
  `/MANIFEST/' is no longer automatically appended.
* nix-prefetch-url works again.
This commit is contained in:
Eelco Dolstra 2004-02-10 16:14:47 +00:00
parent 6551b36790
commit 92e832348d
16 changed files with 678 additions and 24 deletions
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73
doc/manual/bugs.xml
View file

@ -9,6 +9,16 @@
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Generations properly form a tree. E.g., if after switching to
generation 39, we perform an installation action, a generation
43 is created which is a descendant of 39, not 42. So a
rollback from 43 ought to go back to 39. This is not
currently implemented; generations form a linear sequence.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Unify the concepts of successors and substitutes into a
@ -43,12 +53,63 @@
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The current garbage collector is a hack. It should be
integrated into <command>nix-store</command>. It should
delete derivations in an order determined by topologically
sorting derivations under the points-to relation. This
ensures that no store paths ever exist that point to
non-existant store paths.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
There are race conditions between the garbage collector and
other Nix tools. For instance, when we run
<command>nix-env</command> to build and install a derivation
and run the garbage collector at the same time, the garbage
collector may kick in exactly between the build and
installation steps, i.e., before the newly built derivation
has become reachable from a root of the garbage collector.
</para>
<para>
One solution would be for these programs to properly register
temporary roots for the collector. Another would be to use
stop-the-world garbage collection: if any tool is running, the
garbage collector blocks, and vice versa. These solutions do
not solve the situation where multiple tools are involved,
e.g.,
<screen>
$ nix-store -r $(nix-instantiate foo.nix)</screen>
since even if <command>nix-instantiate</command> where to
register a temporary root, it would be released by the time
<command>nix-store</command> is started. A solution would be
to write the intermediate value to a file that is used as a
root to the collector, e.g.,
<screen>
$ nix-instantiate foo.nix > /nix/var/nix/roots/bla
$ nix-store -r $(cat /nix/var/nix/roots/bla)</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For security, <command>nix-push</command> manifests should be
digitally signed, and <command>nix-pull</command> should
verify the signatures. The actual NAR archives in the cache
do not need to be signed, since the manifest contains
cryptographic hashes of these files (and
<filename>fetchurl.nix</filename> checks them).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</appendix>
<!--
local variables:
sgml-parent-document: ("book.xml" "appendix")
end:
-->